Common Core is common sense

Stacey Jacobson-Francis works on math homework with her 6-year-old daughter Luci at their home in Berkeley.

Stacey Jacobson-Francis works on math homework with her 6-year-old daughter Luci at their home in Berkeley.

Photo: Associated Press

Photo: Associated Press

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Stacey Jacobson-Francis works on math homework with her 6-year-old daughter Luci at their home in Berkeley.

Stacey Jacobson-Francis works on math homework with her 6-year-old daughter Luci at their home in Berkeley.

Photo: Associated Press

Common Core is common sense

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Change is never easy. But through the leadership of a bipartisan group of respected educators and many of the nation's governors, millions of children across the country have been benefiting from newly adopted education standards, known as the Common Core, which are designed to improve American student achievement.

With the election season upon us, these standards have come under fire for purely political reasons. It is the time for leaders to stand firm, put our kids and schools above politics, and allow the Common Core the time it needs to work.

It's important to understand what Common Core is - and is not. The changes constitute a long-overdue update on how our children learn and are specifically geared to better prepare them to compete in the 21st century.

These standards were passed with the support of 44 governors, and they reflect a bipartisan effort to improve outcomes for our nation's students.

The standards have roots from the George W. Bush era, when state school chiefs across the United States devised a plan to help fix America's public schools. As our students fall behind their counterparts in other countries, the Common Core was created to help America's children succeed in the increasingly global and competitive 21st century economy. The overwhelming majority of the nation's governors believe that setting these high achievement goals for our school children is the first step in helping them succeed.

Teachers have been using Common Core Standards for several years and the methods are already helping increase student achievement across the United States.

Half of students in this nation are being taught using the standards, and we've already seen a positive impact in the rigor of their academic curriculum. These educational goals emphasize the kinds of skills that are surely needed in the 21st century economy: communication, problem solving and collaboration. After years of focus on simple memorization and regurgitation, the Common Core raises the achievement bar for our kids.

The urgency to make these changes is clear. As our population continues to diversify, our schools are experiencing a continuing and persistent racial and ethnic achievement gap. Our Latino and African American students are falling further behind their white counterparts. That gap will persist into the workplace unless we take steps to intervene.

Meanwhile, the new National Assessment of Educational Progress (sometimes called the nation's report card) reveals that our 12th-graders are not improving in reading and math. Quite simply, we need to do better by our nation's kids.

In 2000, presidential candidate George W. Bush talked about the "soft bigotry of low expectations" and asked our students and teachers to do more to push children and teens to learn. Today, there are partisan political forces in Washington and elsewhere that are seeking, once again, to lower our expectations for our students. This will further erode our nation's competitive edge and increase the odds that more children will be left behind.

To be sure, there have been issues with the implementation of Common Core standards in certain states, and these concerns definitely need to be addressed. But these types of speed bumps are to be expected with any major policy change. The transition may take time, but minor stumbles are by no means a reason to give up on our children and the broader focus on higher achievement goals for our kids. The bottom line is that the education system in the United States needs major improvement, and the Common Core will make it better.

It is time for common sense to prevail when it comes to improving education standards and achievement for all of America's students. And the Common Core is common sense.

Jim Steyer is the president of Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that provides educators and parents with objective, trustworthy information about media and technology.